


give you my wild (give you a child)

by tigerlilycorinne



Series: AUgust 2020 Short Fic [20]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe- Single Parent, Background Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter - Freeform, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining, Post-Hogwarts, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:34:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26011954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigerlilycorinne/pseuds/tigerlilycorinne
Summary: “I think you’re… you’re bright,” Luna tried. Words were sostupid, she thought. So inadequate. She much preferred ideas and feelings, but you couldn’t exactly communicate in emotions and concepts. “And you’re made out of summer. Do you know what I mean?”Ginny stared at her, her bottom lip sucked into her mouth, her fingers winding in her own bright red hair.“Well,” Luna said reasonably, “You’re very hot.”Or: Where Luna’s in love and Ginny is having a hard time figuring that out. To be fair, James is being a little bit of a bother.
Relationships: Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley
Series: AUgust 2020 Short Fic [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1856617
Comments: 4
Kudos: 57
Collections: AUgust 2020





	give you my wild (give you a child)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! We're back with some more fluffy Linny. Title from Taylor Swift's "peace". 
> 
> Luna's POV was difficult for me, so thank you to my friend for editing!

5382 Words 

Luna quite liked children.

She heard little James Sirius Potter before she saw him, his little footsteps pattering down the hall, sounding muffled. Little socked feet. Small and so energetic, just like his mother.

“Luna, Luna! Mummy, Luna’s here!”

Luna ran her fingers over the dust on the bookshelf, drawing little bunny and fish shapes with the tip of her finger. The books there were untouched– Ginny wasn’t much of a reader, and the top shelf was full of Ginny’s adult books,upright even if their spines didn’t line up straight.

In contrast, the lower half of the bookshelf was a mess– some of the books on their sides, others standing upright, others lying open on top of the books standing upright. Little James Potter scurried into the room, his grin as big as it could get on his little face. 

“Hello!” Luna crouched down, ruffling the young boy’s hair. He was still losing his baby fat, and his cheeks were round and full as he beamed up at her.

Luna quite liked children– she didn’t think she’d manage them very well if she ever had her own, but she enjoyed how they were whole people, but in miniature. This wasn’t quite the case for babies, and so she didn’t like babies quite so much in the way they looked, but their wide-eyed wonder and innocence–

Here he was. 

“Albus,” Luna cooed as Ginny came into the room, following her son at a much slower pace. “Hello. You are delightfully devoid of wrackspurts. Your mummy must be doing a good job keeping you happy.” She met Ginny’s bright eyes over the baby, who was gurgling happily in Ginny’s arms.

“Harry’s coming soon,” Ginny promised. “He’s taking Albus to Scorpius, but we’ll be watching James, is that alright?”

Of course that was alright. Ginny always seemed to worry that Luna wouldn’t like bringing her and Harry’s kids when they went out to lunch every Wednesday, and she was always trying to get Harry and his boyfriend to watch over them. 

Luna didn’t mind the children. “It’s more than alright.” She ran her fingers through James’ curly hair to prove it, and he giggled and ducked away. James had gotten Harry’s untamable curls. “You’re a big boy, right? You won’t be a bother to Mummy.”

“Big boy,” echoed James, who was four.

“See?” Luna smiled at Ginny, who looked at both of them exasperatedly, still bouncing Albus gently. “We’ll be fine.”

The doorbell rang. 

“Mummy!” shouted James excitedly, “Daddy’s here! Daddy’s here!

“I know,” Ginny replied, trudging after her scampering son, who was struggling to pull open the front door. “He was planning to.”

Harry stepped in, Draco on his arm, laughing as he scooped up James and spun the little boy up and around in the air. James shouted and laughed, clinging to Harry’s arms.

“You look tired,” Luna told Ginny, who had bags under her eyes. 

Her eyes were bright as ever, of course, but she looked as if she hadn’t slept in a while. Since Harry and Ginny usually traded the kids every week– which was unusual, but it worked because they lived so close together it barely mattered who they were with– Ginny was always tired by the middle of every other week, and more often than not, she got extra coffee when they went out to lunch.

“Oh, Albus.” Ginny smiled wryly down at the child in her arms. “You don’t mean to be a noisy little thing, do you?” 

Albus gurgled up at her, clapping his hands together. He was _big_ now, one year old and taking shaky steps. 

“Did he wake you up again?”

Ginny kissed Albus’s little fist and they walked over to where Harry was setting down James, laughing, and Draco was rolling his eyes at both of them. 

“Yeah.” Ginny handed Albus over to Harry, who grinned and bounced him, murmuring sweet things. “He was _not_ happy last night.”

“He’s happy _now_ , isn’t he?” Harry nuzzled James’ chubby stomach.

“Come on,” Draco said. “We’d best get going. I imagine Weasley would like to go off on her date, seeing as we were already five minutes late.”

“Who’s fault was that?” Harry retorted absently.

Luna swallowed, looking at Draco and then Ginny. Were Ginny’s cheeks pinker than usual, or was she just imagining? Luna liked to imagine they were, not that it was strictly her imagination, precisely, but she thought– she was spinning, again. 

That’s what she liked to call it when she thought herself silly about things– she knew she had _odd_ thoughts, but sometimes she’d go off in different directions and tie them together the wrong way so she ended up thinking about things upside down or in a whirl, where they blended together until–

Now she was spinning about spinning.

Amused with herself, she smiled, patting James’ head as James darted over to fist his hands in her lacy cream skirt, hiding behind it and then popping back out, giggling when Harry feigned surprise. 

“Potter, come _on_.” Draco tapped his foot, checking his watch.

“Your mum isn’t going to hurt Scorp,” Harry said, but he waved a goodbye to Ginny and Luna and headed out the door behind his boyfriend, Albus babbling happily in his arms.

Luna had been wondering something, but she’d rather lost track of it now, looking into Ginny’s eyes. Ginny didn’t have any make-up on– she never did, but somehow, her eyes were able to be so very pretty anyway, without anything around them. 

Oh yes, that was it. Draco had called this a date.

Of course, Draco was a very sarcastic sort of person, and Luna knew this very well. He had always been, but after a few years out of school, his jakes hadn’t been quite as cruel. Luna thought this was very good of him. It was also possible he didn’t _know_ how Luna felt about Ginny and hadn’t been serious but _also_ hadn’t _meant_ to be cruel.

“Come on.” Ginny held her hand out to James, who took it and followed Ginny into the Floo, Luna right behind them.

They came out into the restaurant, James sneezing into his little elbow and rubbing his eyes.

But maybe Draco was kind of serious.

One could be kind of serious, couldn’t they?

Ginny’s cheeks _had_ gone pink, and her eyes were very bright– they always were. But she didn’t have a very meaningful face on right now. She mostly looked tired, and Luna didn’t think anyone could figure out whether someone thought something was a date from a tired expression on a mother’s face; all mothers were tired. Her own mother had been often tired, though always ready for an experiment, just the way Ginny never turned down a Quiddtich match, no matter how many sleepless nights she’d had.

If only Luna flew.

Luna was not a flier.

Not a broom flier anyway. She thought maybe she’d like to ride a thestral– she quite enjoyed it the first time she’d done it, even if she’d been terrified out of her mind, and then if she could fly with Ginny…

Which was all wishful thinking. Wishes were so terribly immaterial, not the pretty kind of immaterial like ideas, but like they didn’t mean anything– which they most certainly _did_. Luna usually didn’t mind if things didn’t _do_ anything, but whenever she looked at Ginny, she found herself making an exception. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, she thought, if wishes _could_ do something?

Oh, she was spinning again.

“Luna,” Ginny was saying, from ahead of her. “Luna.” She had the little smile she got whenever Luna spaced out a little, spinning. It was an affectionate little smile, one that Luna thought might say _Oh, Luna,_ if it could talk. Smiles didn’t talk, though, so Luna just pretended she heard it, and smiled back, tipping her head. “James needs to use the bathroom.”

“Alright!” Luna slipped into a seat at their usual table. “I’ll order for us.”

Ginny smiled at her gratefully as James tugged her hand harder pulling her in the direction of the restrooms. “Two coffees, please.”

“Of course.” Luna watched her go– her men’s trousers and her hair swinging in a bright ponytail behind her. She was wearing a short-sleeve Muggle shirt, and her freckles all the way up her arms were vivid in the cloudy-sunlight coming through the windows of the bustling little wizard’s cafe.

Ginny didn’t have anything against robes, she said, but she didn’t like how they always got in the way of things, so she liked to wear trousers more. Luna thought this was sort of having a thing against robes: that they were inconvenient. What Ginny _meant_ was that she didn’t necessarily dislike robes, but she preferred trousers.

Ginny thought this was amusing whenever Luna pointed it out, and her nose scrunched up when she laughed, so Luna pointed it out a lot.

The waiter came up to the table, his hands in the pockets of his apron. Since they came at the same time every Wednesday, they always caught his shift and he never needed the notepad anymore.

“The usual?”

Luna smiled at him. “Yes, please!”

“But double coffee for your lady?”

“Oh, she’s not,” Luna fumbled with the paper napkin at her place. “Well, she’s not really _my_ –” The waiter blinked at her, so she shook her head, quickly, once. “Yes, double coffee please.”

Ginny wasn’t _her_ lady. Quite frankly, Ginny wasn’t anyone but her own lady, not even when she’d been with Harry. Ginny was more her own than anyone Luna knew. Luna never felt like she owned herself, that was for sure. Luna always felt like she kind of belonged to the clouds, or the earth, and sometimes that she belonged to Ginny.

Harry belonged to Ron and Hermione and Draco, and Draco belonged to Harry and Scorpius and Ginny belonged to _herself_ , like a force of nature. Fire wasn’t anyone’s anything, but anything that fire touched became consumed by the fire.

Not that Ginny had ever touched Luna… not the way she _wanted_ , so very much. She suddenly felt rather hot, even though the Butterbeer that came for her had come cold, the way she always ordered it, and she took another long sip, watching the door of the bathroom. 

It was the middle of the day in the middle of the week, and she had no place imagining Ginny’s hands sliding up her body, down between her legs, up in her hair, hands on her face, her lips pressed to Luna’s, her mouth open…

She was still thinking about it anyway when Ginny came out, a smiling James holding her hand. When he spotted Luna at the table, he let her go and scurried over to scramble into the chair beside Luna, grasping at the salt shaker in the middle of the table when he managed to get up.

Laughing, Luna scooted the salt shaker towards James and spread out his napkin for him.

“ _Luna_ ,” Ginny murmured, reprimanding but not unhappy.

“He’s curious,” Luna said. “Let him be curious.”

He _was_ curious, all right. He was shaking it upside down, and then turned it over, white little specks spilling out onto the napkin. This place had very fine salt grains, so fine it looked like coarse powder. “I’m gonna make a mountain,” James announced.

“Great!” Luna told him, “When you’re done I’ll climb it. But only if it’s on the napkin. If it isn’t on the napkin, it isn’t a good mountain, because the mountain is white and the napkin is white.”

“The table isn’t white,” agreed James, and shook the salt harder.

Luna smiled, and looked across the table at Ginny, pushing the full coffee over to her. “Coffee?”

Ginny hummed absently, watching Luna. Luna liked it when Ginny watched her, as if trying to figure her out. Other people seemed to be uncomfortable when they were being studied, but Luna thought this was ridiculous. What was more flattering than knowing someone thought you were interesting enough to try to figure out?

Not to mention, whatever Ginny was figuring right now _had_ to be good. She was drinking her coffee, both hands cupped around it, her eyes on Luna and James.

“James really likes you,” Ginny observed, half admiring, half curious. “How do you do that?”

“Oh,” Luna said, not knowing the answer. Perhaps… “I wear very nice-feeling skirts.”

Something flickered across Ginny’s face, brightening her tired expression. “Yes, I guess you do. It’s probably not that, though.”

“I don’t see why not.” Luna kicked out her feet and crossed them beneath the table, letting the light fabric of the skirt settle around her legs again. “They’re very nice.”

“No, but you’re so good with him.” Ginny almost sound wistful.

Luna frowned. “He likes you too,” she said. “James, what do you think about your mum?”

James looked up from his little mountain of salt– it hadn’t gotten very high. It was a very low hill, perhaps, but it was pretty nonetheless, sparking in the white light when she tilted her head or leaned forward, changing her angle in relation to the mountain. It was quite nice-looking, she decided. It was a good mountain. 

“I like her,” James said doubtfully, looking at her as if this was a test. “Don’t you like her?”

“ _James_ ,” Ginny scolded, sounding sharper than Luna thought she ought to. He was only four, and he was looking at them both wide-eyed. His face twisted up as he stuck a salty finger in his mouth, and Ginny handed him a small glass of water carefully. “Don’t be a bother to Luna.”

“He’s not a bother. I quite like children.” Luna thought about James’ question and felt herself get hot again, and she reached for her Butterbeer, pressing her palms to the cold surface of the glass. “I do,” she confessed in a loud whisper, as if confiding in James. “Very much.”

“Good,” James said with a wise-looking expression. 

Luna thought the youngest people were sometimes the wisest after all, and no one gave them credit. At four years old, James didn’t care what anyone thought of him, and he was so open-eyed and curious, and bright, like his mother was, and his father, too, Luna supposed, but no one shone quite like Ginny, and it had definitely carried over to her son. 

He was looking at her now, his hands cupped like he was saying a secret too, only he wasn’t whispering. “She likes you too.”

“ _James_ ,” Ginny said again, and her cheeks _were_ pinker this time, Luna was sure of it. After all, the light was pretty white, so it couldn’t be the lighting. Although the tablecloth was pink… 

“Do you really?” Luna asked, knowing she sounded as curious as she felt, fuzzy fluttering through her body like a snow blizzard, but warm.

“Well,” Ginny said, her hands fluttering over her ponytail and sending it swinging the way she did when she felt agitated. She settled her hands down and jutted out her chin the way she did when she was taking a position and deciding to stand by, fire in her eyes. “Yes.”

“That’s good,” Luna said, her stomach warm. “I do too. I think I’m quite a nice person, all things considered.” Ginny’s cheeks flushed a deeper pink than the tablecloth, and Luna decided that had to mean _something_ , especially since Ginny’s eyes were glued to her just like they always were, and if Ginny was always watching her, that _also_ had to mean something. “I also think you’re a very nice person,” she said sincerely. “It’s just. Nice isn’t really your word.”

“I’m nice!” Ginny objected. “I take care of James when we go to lunch.”

“Luna does too,” James added helpfully.

“I know,” Luna assured her. “You are very nice. But your very other things too, don’t you think?”

The waiter came back with a second coffee and the rest of their lunch, but Ginny didn’t look up at him, just said an absent thanks, still staring at Luna like her life sat in Luna’s words, which couldn’t possibly be true because Luna really didn’t think this was a big deal, all things considered. This was just Luna’s opinion, and in any case, it was pretty obvious.

“What other things?”

“Oh,” said Luna, going hot again. Maybe she should’ve gotten a double Butterbeer, if only to stay cool. She was running out, and she’d gotten hot soup, the way she always did, even in the summer, which Ginny had said was a little much. “Other things.” For the life of her, she couldn’t find the words. Ginny was pretty much everything at once, like the sun had decided to visit Earth and curled itself in a tight ball inside of Ginny’s chest, shining out of her when she smiled, soaring into the sky where it belonged whenever Ginny played, spreading warmth into everyone else’s chests when she looked at them…

Or maybe that was just Luna.

“I think you’re… you’re bright,” Luna tried. Words were so _stupid_ , she thought. So inadequate. She much preferred ideas and feelings, but you couldn’t exactly communicate in emotions and concepts. “And you’re made out of summer. Do you know what I mean?”

Ginny stared at her, her bottom lip sucked into her mouth, her fingers winding in her own bright red hair.

“Well,” Luna said reasonably, “You’re very hot.”

Ginny made a sound, her mouth falling open. Her bottom lip was wet now, and plump and pink, and Luna couldn’t stop staring at her face, flooded with color and something in her eyes that set Luna on fire.

“And I love summer,” Luna added significantly, to which Ginny made another sound and pulled her hair so hard her ponytail went crooked. “And summer is–” she grasped for words– “Free. And exciting. Summer is always wonderful, don’t you think? It’s _always_ wonderful, because you never know what’s going to happen, but it’s going to be very good. And it’s pretty like spring, except everything is grown up.”

“Mommy looks like she finished flying,” James observed, which could be referring to her color, or maybe the way her eyes were wild and sparkling again. She didn’t look tired anymore, that was for sure.

“Beautiful,” Luna clarified, because Ginny seemed to have a hard time figuring this out. “That’s pretty but grown up. _I_ think summer is beautiful anyway. And it’s flying weather, and…” she couldn’t think of any more words that really _worked_. “Nice isn’t enough. It’s… very calm. Nice is too much of a calm word for you.”

“I wasn’t upset that you didn’t think nice was my word,” Ginny said finally.

“Oh,” said Luna. She hadn’t been? “You weren’t?”

“No.”

“If Mummy’s mad and you’re a big person she’ll hex you,” James said with certainty.

“Oh,” said Luna again. “Sometimes. I like it, though. Don’t you?”

“You ask people that a lot.” James looked at her consideringly.

“No, she doesn’t,” Ginny interjected. “It is not good to hex other people. Right, James?”

Luna looked back at James. “I ask that because I think other people’s opinions are important. I want to know them. Don’t you think other people’s opinions are important?”

“What’s an op-n-yon?”

“What they think,” Ginny said briskly. “We don’t hex other people, do we, James?”

James looked at his mum. “ _You_ said it was okay,” he said accusingly. “If someone calls you a bad name.”

Luna smiled. “Your mum hexed a lot of people who called her bad names,” she told James. “It was very not-nice.”

James looked confused. “That’s not good.”

“No,” Ginny said, “It’s not.”

“Well,” Luna said fairly. “Their names were not-nice.”

“ _Luna_ ,” Ginny scolded, as if Luna, too, was family. She quite liked that idea. Ginny, after all, didn’t seem opposed to the idea of Luna loving her, so far. “Don’t set a bad example.”

“So she fought them?” James poked his mountain, and salt cascaded down.

“No,” Ginny lied, “Eat your lunch, James.”

“Yes,” Luna said truthfully, and Ginny groaned. “Because they were being mean.”

James grinned. “That’s awesome,” he said. “Can I fight Teddy if he calls me a copy-cat? And can I go to his house when we’re done with lunch? He said he can play with me after lunch if you say I can play with him after lunch and I said that I could go, probably, and he said yes, because you _like_ -like Luna, so you want me to be out of the house.”

“ _James!_ ”

“Can I go?”

“No…” Ginny said slowly, like she was thinking about it. She shouldn’t have, and Luna knew it too– James pounced on it immediately. 

“Can I go? Please? Come on.”

Luna considered James’ words. _Like-_ like sounded very nice to her. Young, but sweet. Her heart felt like summer just thinking about it, or like a little piece of the sun. This was one of those moments where she felt like she belonged very much to Ginny, and she’d never felt it stronger than she did in this moment, she knew it. Just the idea of it maybe, _possibly_ being true…

Could it be true? Probably not. 

Ginny liked women, sure, but Luna had been her friend for so long, and if Ginny was summer, bright and fierce and hot and free, Luna was like… well, she was like a cat, maybe, slinking around and enjoying the sun, chasing whatever she liked. No one worried about the cat, or wondered about the cat, or cared if the cat wasn’t around, because the cat had a mind of its own, and it would come around eventually. Cats were nice, and they were curious, and that was about it. 

She wondered if she was spinning again, or if she was thinking very hard about her heart. Or if thinking very hard about her heart _was_ spinning. She supposed it could be.

“I think awesome is a good word,” Luna told James. “That’s a very good word. It’s a better word for your mum than nice. It means that someone inspires you. And makes you feel awed.”

Ginny caught her eye over the table.

“Awesome is a good thing,” Luna said, in case that was unclear. From the face Ginny was making at her, it probably hadn’t been unclear, but oh well, Luna had said it. 

Children seemed to have a different idea of what awesome meant, not quite as reverent as Luna would’ve liked it– she thought everything deserved a little bit of reverence– but children didn’t have time for reverence with all their enthusiasm, and Luna thought that, too, was admirable. She quite liked children.

She couldn’t help smiling at the look in Ginny’s eyes, even brighter than usual, and the grin that Ginny had, like the world was made of pieces, and all of them had just slotted together. Compliments were very nice things, of course, but honest compliments were even better, and Luna didn’t really believe in false compliments, so Ginny must’ve known Luna was being honest. And if Luna’s honest compliments made Ginny smile like that… 

“Mummy can I go, can I go?”

Luna thought Ginny must already know that she was like summer, and that she was like the sun, and that she was like what the word awesome used to mean in old books that Luna would curl up with when no one wanted to talk to her, in the world of kings and queens and knights. Brilliant and striking. 

_Ginny Weasley._

“Mummy, what does like-like mean?”

Ginny sighed heavily. “It means that I’ll let you go to play with Teddy.”

James cheered. “Thank you Luna for making Mummy like-like you!”

Ginny frowned. “Thank me for letting you go.”

“Thank you, also,” James said to her properly. “Are you done eating yet?”

Luna watched Ginny encourage James to finish his food, and James vacuumed it up, motivated by the idea of spending time with Teddy. 

“Don’t be a bother to Teddy, alright,” Ginny said, “Teddy’s a big boy.”

“I’m a big boy,” James told her, puffing out his chest as they made their way up the path to Andromeda’s house. “I’m almost five.”

“You are not almost five.”

“I’m a bigger boy than Albus,” James argued.

“That doesn’t make you almost five,” Ginny said gently. 

She was so very gentle with her children all the time, and for someone so wild and fierce, Luna always thought that must’ve taken a harder toll on her than the caretaking part of it. 

Ginny was naturally someone who spoke her mind loud and clear. Being gentle and careful about things wasn’t her first instinct, and sometimes Luna would wonder whether that made her more tired than the late nights and the nursing. 

“Hullo, James,” Teddy greeted the not-yet-five year old brightly, “Come on in.”

“You were right about my mum and like-like,” James reported, stepping in, and then Andromeda was at the door, bidding them good day and giving them biscuits to take, telling them to give some to Harry and Draco as well.

“Biscuit?” Ginny held one out, a pink-sprinkled heart, frosted shortbread. She wasn’t looking at Luna– she hadn’t _really_ looked at Luna since they’d come out of the restaurant, James in tow, even when they made a quick stop to Ginny’s place for a change of clothes for James. “Andromeda makes good biscuits.”

“Sure.” Luna accepted the treat, watching Ginny as they made their way to the nearest Apparition point. 

“I hope you didn’t mind James,” Ginny said. “He’s a chatterbox.”

“I really don’t mind,” Luna said, because she didn’t. She liked children very much.

Luna _didn’t_ like Apparition, but it was fast, and Ginny was always short on time, always with a checklist of things to do, always with a mind full of things she’d rather be doing, and more often than not, abandoning the first list in favor of the second. Ginny didn’t have too much spare time on her hands to walk about instead of Apparating.

When they got back to Ginny’s place, just the two of them this time, Ginny still hadn’t really looked at her, her cheeks still pink and her eyes fixed on the line of photos set on the mantlepiece, of James as a baby, Draco and Harry holding Albus, of Ron and Hermione waving in Australia.

Ginny felt unhappy somehow– she didn’t _look_ unhappy. If anything she looked a little bit contemplative, as if wondering why Ron’s had was blue in Australia. 

Luna had often wondered. Blue didn’t seem like the kind of color one thought of when they thought of Australia. Australia seemed brown to her, a pretty, light brown like the color of Ginny’s eyes, or a light green, the way Harry’s eyes looked in faded color photographs, like Australia was full of forests that were too happy to be dark. 

But blue didn’t seem like Australia’s color, not the kind of blue Ron was wearing, in any case. Yes, Luna thought, pretty light brown the way Ginny’s eyes were was the best color for Australia. It might even be the best color for anything. It was, after all, the best color for Ginny’s eyes, anyway. But she was spinning again.

Ginny felt distinctly unhappy, as if Luna could feel the energy of her, sense it coming off of her the way relief might roll off of someone else, though Ginny wasn’t one to be relieved. Ginny was too… awesome to be relieved? Luna was beginning to think there wasn’t a good word for Ginny after all. She defied language.

“Are you upset?” she asked Ginny, aware she sounded a bit put-out about it. She couldn’t help feeling a bit put-out about it– she was sure it was her fault. Who else could’ve upset her? James was only a child.

“What did you mean when you said I was like summer?” 

“Well,” said Luna, feeling like this was a bit obvious, but joining Ginny by the mantlepiece anyway, “I did already say, didn’t I? I meant I think you’re like summer. That’s really the best way to describe it.”

“But,” Ginny said, sounding a little bit impatient, “What does that _mean?_ ”

Luna looked at her, thinking about how she’d stared back at her in the cafe, her eyes bright, how she smiled, how she flew, how she was careful with her children and reckless with herself. How she was bright and hot and pretty but grown up, which was called beautiful, and wondrously free and unpredictable.

“It means a lot of things,” she said, reaching for Ginny’s hand. 

Ginny held it between both of her own, running her thumb over Luna’s knuckles, and making Luna feel strangely weak in the knees, her heart pounding loudly in her ribcage as if worried Luna may have forgotten about it. Luna had not forgotten about her heart. Her heart had been on fire all afternoon.

“Mostly,” she told Ginny’s hand, covered in freckles, “It means… well.” She didn’t think it was a very scary thing to say– after all, she’d already said she loved summer, which indirectly meant… 

She tried to look into Ginny’s eyes as she said it, but her gaze dropped down to Ginny’s lips without her permission, as if her eyes couldn’t help going down, down, as if looking at Ginny’s hand in Luna’s own was where her eyes really wanted to be. Where they touched, Luna was on fire.

Oh but it was a scary thing to say. It was very scary, it was terrifying, it was eating her alive like a vicious predator, it was chasing her out of her heart and setting her emotions loose inside of the whole rest of her body like a swarm of bright yellow bees unleashed sweet and sunny and fierce and free like summer.

“It means,” Luna said again, trying hard to keep going this time, “It means I love you.”

“Summer…” 

Ginny was pressed against her now– when had that happened? Maybe when Luna had been busy staring at Ginny’s lips, which really hadn’t felt like very long…

They were up against the mantlepiece now, Ginny standing so close Luna could count her eyelashes. They were going to _kiss_ , she thought dazedly. Ginny was going to kiss her.

Ginny _did_ kiss her– 

And kissed her.

And kissed her.

And put her hands all over Luna, like they couldn’t decided where to be, like they wanted to be everywhere at once– in her hair, tugging gently and sending sparks down Luna’s spine, cupping her face and pulling Luna closer, closer, her tongue sliding over the seam of Luna’s lips, warm, and wet, and opening her mouth so that Luna could taste the coffee on her tongue, down her back over the knobs of Luna’s spine under her thin white dress, pulling Luna’s hips closer and fluttering lightly over her breasts like Ginny wanted to touch and was too timid. 

Strangely enough this was a touching thought– Ginny was only careful with the people she really, really cared about.

Ginny kissed her hard enough that the mantlepiece was digging into Luna just on the edge of painfully. Luna managed to take Ginny’s hair out of its tie and ran her fingers through it, letting the sweet smell of her fruity shampoo into the air, winding her fingers through the smooth locks and pressing her fingertips to the warm back of Ginny’s neck as she slipped her hands down Ginny’s back.

“Too fast?” Ginny whispered, her arms around Luna’s waist. “Too fast, I think.”

“I don’t think it’s too fast. I think the idea of going too fast is kind of…” Luna grasped for words again– she felt blissfully blank after that kiss– _oh, that kiss_ – her heart still somewhere high in the sky, shaking hands with the sun, so happy it was burning in the best of ways. “It’s only too fast if it’s bad.”

“Not bad, then?”

“ _No_ ,” Luna said feelingly. “You make me very happy.”

“Oh.” Ginny sounded faint, but the light in her eyes and the smile on her face were anything but. She faltered a moment. “Summer… is free. But it’s also when the kids are home.”

“Ginny,” Luna said very honestly, “I quite like children.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I'm on tumblr @[tigerlilycorinne-drarry-me"](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/tigerlilycorinne-drarry-me) or on main @[tigerlilycorinne](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/tigerlilycorinne).


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